Augen’s GenBook

The relatively new electronics company Augen has launched a $99 smartbook called the GenBook.  It’s a 7 inch tablet running on Android 1.6 and judging by the swift sales, people are grabbing them up left and right of the Kmart shelves!  But is this upstart really delivering a quality mobile device for under $100 or is it just a marketing ploy?
The device is incredibly light—made of disturbingly fragile plastic—and the keyboard is ridiculously tiny but manages to work as advertised.  The device does sport 3 USB ports and an SD card reader as well as Ethernet and headphone/microphone jacks like most standard netbooks though.

Hardware-wise, the internals are meek to the extreme.  A 400MHz processor and 128MB of RAM make using the GenBook a lagtastic time indeed and even starting the thing up takes almost two minutes!
The software on the GenBook is the biggest let down for an otherwise promising performer.  Many of the apps that come preloaded aren’t the official apps and don’t work as promised.  And when you try to download apps, they fail to install correctly.  So you may ask what the point of having a cheap alternative to a computer or smartphone is if it doesn’t work.  For that, I don’t have an answer.
This device might be great for your kids to play around with, but if you’re looking to buy a piece of tech that is actually useful, it’s worth spending the extra bank on something a little more robust.